Twists and Turns
by pomegranate-stars
Summary: Just a normal walk to a normal town on a normal journey to become the Pokemon Master. Who knew a little pothole could bring about such a turn of events? One-shot. Ash/Misty.


**Hola mis amigos! So, I believe it's time to admit to y'all my complete addiction to ol' school Pokemon. This was my absolute favorite show when I was little. I had all the cards and everything. So, I thought, well, why not pay homage to something from my youth? So I wrote this one-shot. I hope you like it!**

**Dis: If I owned Pokemon, Misty would have never left.  
**

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**Twists and Turns**

"Can't we take a break? I feel like we've been walking for days!" Misty moaned as the group trudged along the dusty path.

"I told you, Misty, we have to keep walking or we'll never reach the next town before nightfall. You want to sleep in a real bed tonight, don't you?" Brock explained tiredly, as though he'd explained this to her hundreds of times before. The dark-skinned boy rubbed his eyes. "We're as tired as you are."

"Yeah, so, shut your pie hole, Misty." Ash Ketchum snapped from in front of her, the exhaustion and lack of sleep making him cranky.

Misty glared at him. "Hey, why don't you shut up, Ash. No one wants to hear your annoying voice right now!"

"Yeah, well, no one wants to hear yours' either!"

"I don't wanna hear either of you until we reach the next town, so both of you drop it!" Brock had reached the end of his rope.

Next to him, the yellow mouse Pokémon seemed to have reached the same conclusion, letting out an exasperated "Pika-Pi!"

Both Ash and Misty fell into a sullen silence, the redheaded girl taking the time to stick out her tongue at the dark-haired boy in front of her. The group walked in an irritable silence for a few minutes longer.

Misty was silently fuming. Ash was so mean sometimes. He was the whole reason she was walking at all. He'd taken her stupid bike. He had won her sisters' stupid badge. He'd…

Misty was so busy fuming that she failed to watch where she was going. Her foot came up and went down to take a step as it had thousands of times before. Unfortunately for her foot, this time there was a slight difference in the form of a pothole. Misty stepped in it and her ankle gave one valiant effort before twisting and collapsing in on itself. Misty let out a gasp and dropped to her knees, letting Togepi tumble from her arms with a definitive squeak.

"Huh?" Brock turned back to find Misty crouched on the ground, quivering, her hand on her ankle. "Misty, are you alright?"

"No…" Ash looked and was surprised to find tears pooling at the corners of his friend's eyes. This was a girl who didn't cry easily.

Ever the professional, Brock bent next to the water trainer. "Can you stand?" He helped her up. Misty paused and carefully shifted weight to her injured ankle. She let out a cry and fell to the side. Ash, reacting instinctively, caught her and let her lean on him.

She looked at him. "Thanks." She whispered, a whisper all she could manage. Her soft breath was warm on his cheek.

Brock shook his head. "No way are you walking all the way to town with that ankle. We'll have to camp out here."

Ash quickly looked up at that statement. "What? Come on, Brock, I don't wanna camp out again!"

Misty pushed away from him, stumbling to the side. "Well, I'm sorry I'm such a dead weight!"

Brock shot an annoyed look at Ash. "Ash…"

"What? What'd I do?"

Misty leaned herself against a tree, her foot lying limp in an awkward position. "Oh no." The water trainer grumbled sarcastically. "I'm fine. Let's keep walking!"

Brock shook his head. "Stop it, both of you. Ash, help me set up the campsite."

Ash mumbled something about hating sleeping bags and set about helping Brock. Misty leaned against the tree, feeling useless. She watched the boys work in silence for a few restless minutes until Brock straightened up and stretched. "I'm going to go and get some wood to build the fire. Can I trust you two not to kill each other until I get back?" The tanned boy left the clearing without waiting for an answer.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the clearing. Misty slid down the tree, carefully letting her ankle loll in front of her. She let her head fall back against the tree and allowed the brave front she had put on to drop off her face. Her ankle really was killing her.

She listened to the sounds in the woods around her, cradling Togepi to her chest.

"Hey…Misty?"

Misty opened her eyes to see the dark-haired trainer shifting from foot to foot awkwardly in front of her.

"What is it, Ash?" Misty's voice came out harsher than she had meant it to; she could see her traveling companion flinch.

"I…I, um, just thought I should…apologize, for snapping at you earlier. I didn't mean… I guess…I'm sorry." Ash turned away from her and began to walk back to the other side of the clearing. A voice stopped him.

"Ash…it's ok. I shouldn't have taken it so personally." He turned back to see the water trainer's eyes were closed and her head was against the tree trunk.

He took a small step closer. He had never really noticed before…but his friend was actually very pretty. "Misty? Does your ankle still hurt?"

Misty opened her eyes and stared openly at Ash. Why had she never before noticed the cute little way his nose scrunched up when he was worried?

"Yes." She said simply, tearing her eyes away from Ash's face with difficulty to glare at her now swollen ankle. "Stupid pothole."

Ash stepped forward and knelt in front of her. Pikachu had all but vanished, Misty suddenly noticed. And Togepi was gone too! Her mind frantically began to think of where the Pokémon could have gotten to; anything to keep her mind away from the blush rapidly spreading across her cheeks.

Ash rolled up the sleeves of his signature blue jacket and gently pressed on her ankle. "Here?"

Misty sucked in her breath and squeezed her eyes shut. "Ow."

Ash quickly looked up at her, concern morphing his young features. Then he slowly and carefully pressed down on her swollen ankle. Once Misty had gotten over the initial shock, she had to admit that this was helping.

She let her eyes slide open to watch her friend working so dedicatedly and seriously to help her feel better. She smiled softly. "Thank you, Ash."

Ash looked up into her eyes and smiled back. "No prob, Misty."

******

"Can you believe that, Pikachu?" Brock absentmindedly patted the yellow mouse on the head as he watched his traveling companions crouch rather close together on the ground.

"Pika-Pika Pi!" The Pokémon looked up at the dark-skinned trainer as if to say, "I told you so."

"Yeah, yeah, you were right, Pikachu." Brock watched the pair for a moment longer before straightening up and collecting Togepi and Pikachu into his arms. "Come on, then. Let's get back before we're missed."

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**I just wanted to write something little and cute for the characters that I loved so much in my childhood (and still love today) I hope I succeeded. Please please review and tell me what you thought!**

**Love forever,**

**xxAlltheWorldsAStagexx  
**


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